Who the hell had a car like that?

Asked Dian de Momerie, in one of her more alert moments. To be specific, like this:

I saw some linked photos of this recently, which spurred me to actually looking up properly what Lord Peter Wimsey’s car looks like. To which the answer is “the car of a man who is over-compensating”. Massively over-compensating. According to this swooning article*, the bonnet of a 1931 Daimler Double Six is ten feet long**. It knocks the socks off a red Ferrari in the mid-life crisis stakes. For more photographs of this deeply Freudian vehicle, see here.

I have to admit that I attempted a small vignette on the subject of what on earth Harriet thought when she first saw it, but failed.

*Over the car, not Wimsey.

**That is so enormous I am prepared for it to be an error. Still, even 6 – 8 feet would be a bloody big bonnet.